In 2026, car sales search ads cost a median $2.27 per click and $44.26 per lead, and auto repair, service and parts ads cost $4.35 per click and $29.96 per lead, according to WordStream’s 2026 benchmarks. At the keyword level, Clickem’s analysis of 380 commercial US automotive keywords puts the volume-weighted median Keyword Planner CPC at $3.66, from $1.13 for car wash terms to $17.79 for “sell my car” terms.
In short:
- WordStream’s 2026 medians for Automotive (For Sale) search ads are an 8.28% CTR, $2.27 CPC, 6.01% conversion rate and $44.26 cost per lead, based on 13,474 US campaigns across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.
- Car sales cost per lead rose 13.9% year over year even though CPC fell 5.81%, because the median conversion rate dropped 22.56%.
- Across 80 auto repair and maintenance keywords with 13.6 million monthly US searches, the volume-weighted median Keyword Planner CPC was $4.72. Transmission keywords were the most expensive repair job at $7.50.
- The median “[brand] dealership” CPC estimate across 17 brands was $5.22, against $4.02 for “car dealership” and $1.86 for “used [model] for sale.”
- “Car dealership” searches peak in July and bottom out in November, and “car ac repair” searches run 9.5x higher in June than in December (Google Trends, 2021 to 2026).
This page combines the best published benchmark with an original dataset we built for this cluster: keyword-level CPCs for nine automotive segments and five years of seasonality. It is the reference our automotive marketing agency work starts from. Clickem runs Google Ads and Meta ads for car dealerships, auto repair shops, body shops and auto lenders.
What is the average CPC for car dealerships and auto repair shops?
The median CPC is $2.27 for car sales and $4.35 for repair, service and parts. Those are realized costs from live campaigns, which makes them the best single answer to “what will I actually pay per click.”
| Category (WordStream 2026) | CTR | CPC | Conversion rate | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automotive (For Sale) | 8.28% | $2.27 | 6.01% | $44.26 |
| YoY change | -0.12% | -5.81% | -22.56% | +13.90% |
| Automotive (Repair, Service and Parts) | 5.56% | $4.35 | 15.51% | $29.96 |
| YoY change | 0.00% | +11.54% | +5.77% | +5.12% |
| All industries | 6.64% | $5.42 | 8.18% | $66.69 |
Source: WordStream 2026 Google Ads benchmarks, 13,474 US search campaigns from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026. WordStream says its “averages” are medians, and the figures blend Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. What this means for you: both automotive categories pay less per lead than the all-industry median, and repair converts at almost twice the all-industry rate.
Three details most summaries miss:
- Repair is unusual on every axis. It has the lowest CTR of any industry WordStream tracks (5.56%), the second highest conversion rate (15.51%) and the second lowest cost per lead ($29.96). People who click a repair ad usually need the car fixed now.
- Car sales got cheaper per click and more expensive per lead. WordStream links the rise in automotive cost per lead to industries hit by tariffs. A cheaper click does not help if fewer clicks turn into leads.
- The medians do not multiply. $2.27 divided by 6.01% gives $37.77, not $44.26. For repair, $4.35 divided by 15.51% gives $28.05, not $29.96. Each median is taken separately across campaigns, so use the published CPL for budgeting rather than deriving it from CPC and conversion rate.
For context, the 2025 edition (16,446 campaigns, April 2024 to March 2025) reported Automotive (For Sale) at $2.41 CPC, 7.76% conversion rate and $38.86 CPL, and Repair at $3.90 CPC, 14.67% conversion rate and $28.50 CPL. Many pages still quote those older figures as current.
LocaliQ’s automotive subcategories (a separate sample)
LocaliQ, which co-publishes WordStream’s benchmarks, also publishes a separate automotive report with dealer subcategories. It uses a different sample and period, so do not blend it with the table above.
| Subcategory (LocaliQ 2026) | CTR | CPC | Conversion rate | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All automotive | 6.60% | $3.49 | 9.21% | $33.12 |
| General new auto dealers | 8.23% | $2.48 | 6.73% | $35.87 |
| General used auto dealers | 8.33% | $1.73 | 3.53% | $59.74 |
| Auto service and repair | 4.41% | $6.42 | 15.39% | $42.10 |
Source: LocaliQ 2026 Automotive Search Ad Benchmarks, 1,983 US campaigns from April 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, with at least 12 campaigns per subcategory. What this means for you: general used dealers get the cheapest clicks and the lowest conversion rate in this table, so their cost per lead runs well above general new-car dealers’. Small subcategory samples make these noisier than the WordStream table.
How we built this dataset
Published benchmarks tell you what an average account pays. They do not tell you what “brake repair near me” costs compared with “oil change,” or when “used cars” searches peak. So we built a keyword-level dataset. Here is exactly how.
- Pulled: October 9, 2026, from Google Ads Keyword Planner data (via an API), United States, English, Google Search only, search partners off.
- Keywords: 428 hand-built US consumer automotive keywords in nine segments: new car shopping, used car shopping, auto finance, repair and maintenance, collision and glass, detailing and tint, sell and trade-in, car rental and EV. 423 returned data. Five “bad credit” car loan and dealership keywords returned no volume and no CPC at all, and we did not estimate them.
- Duplicates removed: Google reports some close variants with identical numbers (for example “car loan” and “car loans”). We kept one per group, leaving 399 unique keywords.
- Intent filter: we set aside 13 research queries (loan calculators, “what is my car worth”) and 7 product queries (tires, batteries, home chargers). The headline tables use the 380 unique commercial keywords, with 38.0 million combined monthly US searches.
- Statistics: “VW median” is the volume-weighted median, meaning half of all searches in the group happen on keywords at or below that CPC. It stops one obscure, expensive keyword from distorting a segment.
- Seasonality: five years of weekly Google Trends data (October 2021 to September 2026) for 28 automotive terms plus “tax refund” as a control, and 48 months of Keyword Planner volumes (September 2022 to August 2026). Each year is indexed to its own average, and the published index is the median across years, so 120 means 20% above an average month. Monthly volumes were adjusted for days in the month.
What the CPC column is: Keyword Planner’s estimate of cost per click for that exact query, modeled across all advertisers. The top of page bid columns are, in Google’s own API definition, the 20th and 80th percentile of top of page bids. They are bids, not prices paid. The section below explains why that matters.
Limits: these are national US figures, and dense metros run higher. Search volumes are Google’s rounded estimates. Segment totals are sums across our chosen keywords, not total market size. The list is a broad sample of each segment’s main commercial queries, not every automotive keyword.
Automotive CPC by segment
Selling a car to a dealer is the most expensive automotive search, and washing one is the cheapest. The gap between the top and bottom segment is more than 15x.
| Segment | Keywords | Monthly US searches | VW median CPC | Median low top of page bid | Median high top of page bid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sell and trade-in (sell my car, cash for cars) | 21 | 369,770 | $17.79 | $6.73 | $18.39 |
| Auto finance (car loan, refinance) | 22 | 870,280 | $13.55 | $3.83 | $12.84 |
| Collision, body and glass | 34 | 1,815,600 | $5.96 | $2.12 | $9.45 |
| New car shopping | 100 | 5,187,630 | $4.96 | $1.42 | $5.13 |
| Repair and maintenance | 80 | 13,598,720 | $4.72 | $1.73 | $6.91 |
| Car rental | 15 | 2,536,100 | $3.91 | $0.90 | $3.38 |
| Used car shopping | 59 | 3,839,720 | $2.57 | $0.58 | $2.80 |
| EV (shopping and charger installation) | 16 | 281,400 | $1.60 | $1.88 | $5.89 |
| Detailing, wash, tint and wrap | 33 | 9,490,100 | $1.13 | $1.59 | $5.37 |
| All segments | 380 | 37,989,320 | $3.66 | $1.54 | $5.86 |
Source: Clickem analysis of Google Ads Keyword Planner data, US, October 2026. Commercial intent keywords only. What this means for you: the segment you are in moves your cost per click by more than 15x, so a single “automotive CPC” figure is close to useless for planning.
Two segments hide a very different business inside them:
- Detailing: car wash terms (7 keywords, 7.5 million searches) pull the segment down to $1.13. Without car wash, detailing, tint, wrap and paint protection film have a VW median of $4.07. Detailing alone is $2.64, tint $5.72, wrap and PPF $4.52. Detailers should read our auto detailing marketing guide.
- EV: EV charger installation is $18.50, more than 11x the $1.60 for EV shopping terms.
Auto finance is the second most expensive segment in the set, after sell and trade-in: “auto refinance” is $21.55 and “refinance car loan” $17.90. Keyword Planner reported no data at all for five “bad credit” car loan and dealership keywords. Our auto finance marketing guide covers what lenders can and cannot target.
How much do auto repair Google Ads cost by job type?
Transmission and brake keywords cost the most; tires and inspections the least. The spread inside repair is more than 2.5x, which is why shops should not run every service in one campaign.
| Repair job type | Keywords | Monthly US searches | VW median CPC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transmission | 6 | 567,600 | $7.50 |
| Brakes | 6 | 596,000 | $6.92 |
| AC and heating | 5 | 416,600 | $6.58 |
| General (“auto repair near me”, “mechanic near me”) | 16 | 3,033,100 | $5.28 |
| Oil change | 5 | 2,239,400 | $5.09 |
| Diagnostics | 4 | 54,620 | $5.03 |
| Alignment and suspension | 7 | 619,100 | $4.86 |
| Battery | 5 | 387,400 | $4.10 |
| Engine and exhaust | 15 | 571,200 | $3.83 |
| Tires (tire shop, repair, rotation) | 8 | 4,243,700 | $3.29 |
| Inspection and smog | 3 | 870,000 | $2.92 |
What this means for you: a transmission click costs 2.3x a tire click, but a transmission job is usually worth far more than a tire job. Judge each job type by its cost per booked job against its average ticket, not by CPC. The most expensive single repair terms in our set were “bmw repair near me” ($9.67), “diesel mechanic near me” ($8.00) and “european auto repair” ($7.93).
Collision splits the same way: auto glass keywords have a $9.61 VW median, body and collision $5.96, and dent repair $4.33. “Mobile windshield replacement” ($14.36) and “hail damage repair” ($12.38) were the priciest collision terms. Shop owners will find the channel side of this in our auto repair shop marketing guide, the Google Ads for auto repair shops playbook and the auto body shop marketing guide. Dealer service departments compete for the same clicks; our fixed ops marketing guide covers how.
What are the most expensive automotive keywords?
Seven of the ten most expensive keywords in our set are people trying to sell a car. Dealers, instant offer sites and national buyers all want that inventory.
| Rank | Keyword | Segment | CPC estimate | Monthly US searches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sell my car fast | Sell and trade-in | $27.21 | 880 |
| 2 | sell car online | Sell and trade-in | $24.26 | 12,100 |
| 3 | sell my car | Sell and trade-in | $22.58 | 90,500 |
| 4 | sell my truck | Sell and trade-in | $22.07 | 2,900 |
| 5 | sell used car | Sell and trade-in | $22.06 | 6,600 |
| 6 | clear bra near me | Detailing, tint and wrap | $21.78 | 1,300 |
| 7 | auto refinance | Auto finance | $21.55 | 18,100 |
| 8 | cash for cars | Sell and trade-in | $20.05 | 49,500 |
| 9 | tesla charger installation | EV | $19.50 | 3,600 |
| 10 | where to sell my car | Sell and trade-in | $19.23 | 8,100 |
What this means for you: a dealer buying inventory through search pays about 6.9x more per click than when selling used cars ($17.79 vs $2.57 segment medians). Valuation lookups are far cheaper: “car value” is $2.71, “what is my car worth” $3.77 and “trade in value” $4.54. Those queries are a cheaper way to reach the same sellers earlier.
What does a car dealership pay per click for brand, new, used and lease searches?
Brand dealer searches cost more than generic ones, and used model searches cost the least. This is the table dealers should plan campaign budgets from.
| Query type | Median CPC estimate | Monthly US searches |
|---|---|---|
| “[brand] dealer near me” (17 brands) | $5.31 | 4,327,500 across all 34 brand dealer keywords |
| “[brand] dealership” (17 brands) | $5.22 | (included above) |
| “[model] lease deals” (24 models) | $4.17 | 157,300 |
| “car dealership” | $4.02 | 246,000 |
| “car dealership near me” | $3.11 | 201,000 |
| “new [model] for sale” (24 models) | $2.63 | 37,530 |
| “used cars” | $2.57 | 673,000 |
| “used [model] for sale” (24 models) | $1.86 | 346,600 |
What this means for you: new car shoppers search by brand and dealer name, not by “new [model] for sale.” The 34 brand dealer keywords get 6.5x the searches of our 18 generic new car keywords, and used model queries get 9.2x the searches of new model queries. The used query was cheaper for 22 of 24 models.
Brand matters. “Volkswagen dealership” ($6.66) and “subaru dealership” ($6.46) were the most expensive brand terms; “tesla dealer near me” ($2.96) and “lexus dealer near me” ($3.09) the cheapest. In used, “buy here pay here” costs $7.42 with 201,000 monthly searches, 2.9x the price of “used cars” and the most expensive used car query we tested. Independents will find more on this in our used car dealer marketing guide, and franchise stores in the Google Ads for car dealerships playbook.
Does adding “near me” make keywords more expensive?
Not reliably. Across 49 matched pairs, adding “near me” changed the CPC estimate by a median of 4%. It was higher in 28 pairs and lower in 21.
| Keyword | CPC without “near me” | CPC with “near me” | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| body shop | $3.64 | $5.96 | 1.64x |
| window tint | $4.07 | $5.76 | 1.42x |
| auto repair | $3.92 | $5.18 | 1.32x |
| oil change | $4.83 | $5.09 | 1.05x |
| used cars | $2.57 | $2.71 | 1.05x |
| car dealership | $4.02 | $3.11 | 0.77x |
| windshield replacement | $11.85 | $9.61 | 0.81x |
| cash for cars | $20.05 | $14.17 | 0.71x |
What this means for you: the “near me” premium is real in local services (a median 15% across 18 repair pairs and 27% across 9 detailing, tint and wrap pairs). It reverses where national players bid hard on the base term, as in dealerships, windshields and car buying. Do not assume local intent always costs more.
Why do Keyword Planner CPCs differ from what you actually pay?
Keyword Planner estimates the price of one exact query across every advertiser bidding on it. Your account’s average CPC blends thousands of queries, many of them cheap. For high intent money keywords, realized CPC usually lands below the estimate.
| Comparison | Keyword Planner (Clickem dataset) | Realized median (WordStream 2026) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repair and maintenance | $4.72 VW median | $4.35 | Keyword Planner about 9% higher |
| Used car shopping vs car sales | $2.57 VW median | $2.27 | Keyword Planner about 13% higher |
| New car shopping vs car sales | $4.96 VW median | $2.27 | Keyword Planner 2.2x higher |
Four reasons the numbers diverge:
- You pay less than you bid. Google’s actual CPC definition says you “only pay what’s minimally required to clear the Ad Rank thresholds and beat the Ad Rank of the competitor immediately below you.” The top of page range is a range of bids, not prices.
- Real accounts carry cheap clicks. Your own brand terms, model and trim long tail, and inventory and Performance Max placements all pull the account average down.
- Quality Score lowers the price for the same position, because ad quality is part of Ad Rank.
- Keyword Planner counts every bidder, including national players with deep pockets. WordStream’s “For Sale” category also blends new and used, brand and vehicle listing clicks, which is why new car shopping shows the widest gap.
What this means for you: use Keyword Planner to compare segments and keywords against each other, and use realized benchmarks or your own account data to set the budget. If your realized CPC on a money keyword is well above the high top of page bid, look at Quality Score and match types before you look at the market.
When is automotive search demand highest? Five years of seasonality
Most automotive search demand peaks in summer, not at year end. AC repair is the most seasonal term we measured by a wide margin, and used car demand leans toward tax refund season.
| Search term (Google Trends, 5 years) | Peak month (index) | Low month (index) | Peak to low | Years peaking in that month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| car ac repair | Jun (226) | Dec (24) | 9.5x | 3 of 5 (Jun or Jul in 5 of 5) |
| snow tires | Dec (223) | May (33) | 6.7x | 3 of 5 |
| winter tires | Nov (215) | May (39) | 5.5x | 4 of 5 |
| ev charger installation | Jul (140) | Nov (66) | 2.1x | 3 of 5 |
| window tint | Jun (128) | Nov (76) | 1.7x | 2 of 5 |
| car detailing | May (119) | Jan (78) | 1.5x | 1 of 5 (Apr to Jul in 5 of 5) |
| buy here pay here | Feb (126) | Dec (86) | 1.5x | 4 of 5 |
| sell my car | Jul (114) | Dec (84) | 1.4x | 2 of 5 |
| car dealership | Jul (113) | Nov (84) | 1.3x | 3 of 5 |
| oil change | Jul (112) | Dec (88) | 1.3x | 4 of 5 |
| tire shop | Jul (111) | Jan (86) | 1.3x | 3 of 5 |
| used cars | Mar (111) | Dec (88) | 1.3x | 2 of 5 (Feb or Mar in 4 of 5) |
| collision repair | Jul (110) | Nov (93) | 1.2x | 3 of 5 |
Source: Clickem analysis of Google Trends, US web search, October 2021 to September 2026. 100 is an average month. What this means for you: a flat monthly budget overspends in the slow months and runs out of impression share in the busy ones. Shift budget toward each service’s peak.
The same pattern shows at segment level in Keyword Planner volumes, which measure absolute searches rather than relative interest.
| Segment (Keyword Planner, 4 years) | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New car shopping | 97 | 97 | 105 | 97 | 97 | 99 | 103 | 106 | 106 | 102 | 96 | 95 |
| Used car shopping | 106 | 112 | 107 | 101 | 99 | 101 | 101 | 103 | 97 | 95 | 91 | 84 |
| Auto finance | 96 | 104 | 115 | 102 | 106 | 101 | 106 | 95 | 102 | 94 | 90 | 90 |
| Repair and maintenance | 98 | 93 | 100 | 98 | 98 | 103 | 112 | 104 | 101 | 99 | 99 | 96 |
| Collision, body and glass | 102 | 100 | 106 | 104 | 99 | 102 | 101 | 103 | 100 | 99 | 95 | 88 |
| Detailing, wash, tint and wrap | 96 | 112 | 114 | 105 | 106 | 109 | 106 | 104 | 92 | 92 | 78 | 87 |
| Car rental | 86 | 99 | 107 | 104 | 106 | 114 | 128 | 108 | 88 | 89 | 84 | 87 |
| EV | 80 | 82 | 102 | 104 | 102 | 113 | 123 | 132 | 98 | 90 | 87 | 86 |
Source: Clickem analysis of Keyword Planner monthly volumes, September 2022 to August 2026, adjusted for days in the month, median of years. Segment indexes are flatter than single terms because they are driven by each segment’s biggest keywords. We left out the sell and trade-in segment here because its November high comes from one-off spikes in individual keywords; Trends shows “sell my car” peaking in July.
Seasonal claims we tested
Dealer and shop marketing advice repeats a few seasonal rules. We checked each against the data.
| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Year end is the big search month for dealers | Not supported | “Car dealership” peaks in July (113) and is lowest in November (84). “New cars” peaks in August (110) and bottoms in October (90). Year end deals may drive sales, but search interest is lowest from October to December. |
| Used car demand rises in tax refund season | Supported, modest for “used cars”, strong for buy here pay here | “Tax refund” peaks in February in 5 of 5 years. “Used cars” is 108 in February and 111 in March. “Buy here pay here” hits 126 in February, peaking there in 4 of 5 years. |
| AC repair peaks in summer | Strongly supported | June 226 vs December 24 (9.5x), with the peak in June or July in all five years. |
| Collision work peaks in winter | Not supported nationally | “Collision repair” is nearly flat (1.18x) with July on top. “Auto body shop” peaks in July (115). Snow belt markets may differ. |
| Tires peak in winter | Only winter and snow tires | “Tire shop” peaks in July (111). “Winter tires” and “snow tires” peak in November and December, but together get 55,300 monthly searches against 2.24 million for “tire shop near me.” |
| Batteries peak in winter | Partly | “Car battery” tops out in January (115), but the swing is only 1.28x and the peak month repeats in just 1 of 5 years. “Car battery replacement” has two humps, August (112) and January (111). Spring is the reliable low. |
| Detailing peaks in spring | Supported, spring into early summer | “Car detailing” climbs from a January low (78) to a May peak (119), 52% higher. The yearly peak fell between April and July in all five years. |
What this means for you: plan a dealer’s biggest search budgets for spring and summer, a used car store’s for February and March, and a repair shop’s AC and cooling campaigns for May to August. Car loan searches follow a similar shape: “auto loan” and “car loan” are highest in July with a second high in March, and lowest in November.
How to use these benchmarks in your own account
Benchmarks are for sanity checks, not targets. Compare yourself against the right row, then decide what to fix.
| If your account shows | Likely cause | What to check first |
|---|---|---|
| CPC well above the WordStream median for your category | Metro competition, broad match drift, low Quality Score | Search terms report, match types, Quality Score on top spending keywords |
| Normal CPC, cost per lead far above the median | Conversion rate problem on the landing page or VDP | Page speed, form length, call tracking, whether calls count as conversions |
| Cost per lead below the median, few sales | Lead quality or lead handling | Lead to sale rate by source in the CRM, response time |
| Budget runs out mid month in summer | Flat budget against seasonal demand | Shift budget toward peak months using the tables above |
| Repair campaign CPC near the transmission or brake range | All services in one campaign | Split campaigns by job type with separate budgets |
For dealer budgeting from these figures, including cost per car sold at different close rates, see how much car dealerships spend on advertising. For cross-industry context, our pages on how much Google Ads cost and cost per lead benchmarks cover every vertical.
Common questions
What is the average cost per click for car dealerships?
WordStream’s 2026 median for Automotive (For Sale) search ads is $2.27 per click, based on 13,474 US campaigns across Google and Microsoft Ads. At the keyword level, Keyword Planner estimates “car dealership” at $4.02 and a median $5.22 for “[brand] dealership” across 17 brands. Where your own account average lands depends on how much brand and used inventory traffic you buy.
How much do Google Ads cost for an auto repair shop?
WordStream’s 2026 median for auto repair, service and parts is $4.35 per click and $29.96 per lead, with a 15.51% conversion rate. By job type, Keyword Planner estimates range from $2.92 for inspection keywords to $7.50 for transmission keywords. Plan the budget per service, not as one number.
What is a good cost per lead for car dealers?
The 2026 WordStream median for car sales search ads is $44.26, up 13.9% year over year. LocaliQ’s separate sample puts general new auto dealers at $35.87 and used auto dealers at $59.74. A good CPL is one that produces an acceptable cost per car sold at your own close rate.
Why is my CPC higher than Keyword Planner says?
Keyword Planner is a national estimate for exact queries. Dense metros, broad match pulling in pricier queries, and low Quality Score all push realized CPC up. Check your search terms and Quality Score before blaming the market.
When should automotive businesses spend the most on Google Ads?
For most automotive services, search demand peaks between May and August. Dealership searches peak in July, used car and buy here pay here searches in February and March, and AC repair in June and July. Winter tires are the main exception, peaking in November and December.
Get your account compared against this data
The quickest useful check is to pull your last 12 months of CPC and cost per lead by campaign and set them against the rows above. Gaps of more than a few dollars often point to a structure problem, not a market one.
We run that comparison as part of every automotive account review. See how our automotive marketing services work, read about our Google Ads management, or get in touch and we will show you where your account sits against these benchmarks.
